Monday, January 27, 2014

Legionaries to critics: 'Give us a chance'

As the Legionaries of Christ ponder new leadership and a new
constitution amid what is arguably among the deepest crises any Catholic
religious order has ever faced, priests taking part in a keenly
anticipated general chapter meeting in Rome have a two-pronged message
for those skeptical that change is possible.

First, they say, there are no guarantees; and second, give us a chance.

As if one were needed, participants in the general chapter got a
reminder Wednesday of just how hard it may be to regain trust after more
than a decade of denying charges of sexual abuse and misconduct against
their founder, the late Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, only to
have to acknowledge them in 2009.

"The election of new superiors and promulgation of a new constitution
won't change the internalized corruption," said Vaca, now a psychology
professor in New York.

Asked what he would say to such critics, Legionary Fr. John Bartunek,
a Cleveland native who now lives in Rome, said they're asking the
Legionaries "a better question than we sometimes realize."

Bluntly, he said, "I can't give any guarantees." What he would ask, he said, is patience."I would say to those critics that I believe we're sincere in wanting
to change, so please give us a chance," he said. "We're going to get
better, but be patient."

Bartunek and two other American Legionaries taking part in the general chapter, which began Jan. 8, sat down with NCR on Wednesday at the order's Rome headquarters.

On Monday, the order posted a Web announcement that the general
chapter had entered the election process to choose a new superior,
called a general director, and other clergy to serve on the order's
general council.

The results are not official until Pope Francis signs off.

The order has essentially been under papal receivership since 2010,
when Benedict XVI appointed a delegate in the person of Italian Cardinal
Velasio De Paolis to lead a cleanup operation.

All three Legionaries who spoke to NCR emphasized the importance of finding a leader who represents a break with Maciel.

"We have men who are very capable of governing who weren't associated
with the founder, and we needed to show that," said Fr. John Connor,
who grew up in Maryland and now lives in New York.

"For me, nonassociation with the founder is a very important issue," Connor said.

Fr. David Daly, a native of St. Louis who currently serves as
superior of a Legionary community in Atlanta, said the same conviction
is broadly shared among priests taking part in the chapter.

"Most everyone is aware that's an important part of our selection," he said.

Evolution already underway

The Legionaries insisted that the order already has evolved
considerably, away from perceptions of secrecy, excessive control, and
an unseemly appetite for money and power.

Bartunek, for instance, pointed to a new way of dealing with authority.

"It was too centralized, too much command-and-control," he said.

"There wasn't a lot of participation in decisions, and there was too
much passing the buck up and up. Local superiors were just kind of
middle men, passing even little decisions up and then everything came
down from on high."

Today, he said, things are different.

"Each superior now has councils that are actually functioning, at least more than they were," Bartunek said.

"There also has been a change in superiors, because we used to have
superiors that would stay in office for years and years. There's a lot
more consultation, such as talking with a guy you're going to move [to
ask], 'What do you think? How do you feel?' "

Bartunek also said the internal climate has loosened up.

"In the past we valued charity a lot, but we had a limited understanding of it," he said.

"We thought it meant you can never really differ, but now we have a
lot more discussion.

Culturally, we're learning that you can still love
one another when you disagree."

Connor said there's a new commitment to transparency, citing Dec. 5
letters from Legion officials acknowledging the validity of sex abuse
allegations against a former novice instructor, Fr. William Izquierdo,
and outlining steps the order has taken to combat the problem.

"That was a pretty significant change in communication," Connor said. "I would hope people see that."

A new charism

Trying to identify a mission for the Legion post-Maciel, the priests
said, known in the argot of religious orders as a "charism," is one of
the chapter's primary challenges.

Though each phrased it slightly different, all agreed that the charism of the new Legion will be based on missionary drive.

Daly phrased it this way: "helping people be active apostles in the new evangelization."

The priests expressed gratitude for signals from the Vatican that it
wants the order to survive, such as the fact that in addition to De
Paolis, the Vatican commissioned one of the church's best-regarded canon
lawyers, Jesuit Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, to advise them during the
general chapter.

Recently, American canon lawyer Edward Peters called for the Legion
to be put out of business, asserting that "the Catholic church has zero
tradition of institutes of perfection being founded ... by predatory
charlatans." Bartunek said it was consoling to hear De Paolis and
Ghirlanda say that's not quite true.

"It's pretty clear we're not the only ones," he said, "because both of them said they've dealt with other cases."

(Though he said De Paolis and Ghirlanda did not cite specifics, one
instance they may have had in mind concerns the founder of an Italian
order known as the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fr. Gino
Burresi, who was removed and barred from public ministry by Benedict XVI
in May 2005 facing charges of sexual abuse of seminarians. In
retrospect, it seemed a harbinger of the pope's move against Maciel a
year later, and today the Servants are still a going concern.)

The Legionaries voiced a basic confidence that the order will survive.

"If these kinds of challenges don't break you, they make you," Connor said.

"I think the Legion is going to endure for many years, primarily
because I see our men stronger," he said. "Among those who stayed,
there's a commitment and a passion that's creating a very strong
foundation for the future."

That doesn't mean, however, the internal struggles are at an end.

Connor, for instance, said the general chapter is committed to
upholding a 3-year-old policy that Maciel will no longer be referred to
(in Spanish) as "our father," that pictures of him will be removed from
Legionary facilities, and that his writings won't be used in formation
programs.

"We all understand that he can't be a model of Christian life, religious life or Legionary life," he said.

Yet Bartunek said there are some Legionaries not ready to completely cancel Maciel from memory.

"A lot of the fathers fed their hunger for spiritual reading with the
writings of the founder," he said. "Today a lot of these guys are doing
great work and are spiritually mature priests, and they ask, 'How can
we say it's all trash?' "

No lurch to the left

Although the Legionaries have a reputation for being on the
conservative side of most Catholic debates, the priests said they're
mostly enthused about the new winds blowing under Francis.

They also said Francis' dedication to simplicity is having an impact,
including on the very practical level of thinking about where to hold
events so they don't appear overly sumptuous and so on.

"When we read that he talked about what kind of car a priest should
drive, every single one of us was checking out our car to see where
we're at," Daly said.

That said, observers probably shouldn't expect a sharp lurch to the left.

"It's common among us Legionaries that we try to be in step with the
church, and we look to the current magisterium as a reference point for
that," Daly said.

Asked about Catholics who would say being in step with the church is
not always the same thing as being in step with its formal authorities,
Daly's reply was succinct: "For us it is, and I think it will continue."